Fossil is rolling out a major update to its Gen 5 smartwatches, bringing new features that the company has developed such as support for VO2 max estimation, an improved sleep tracker, battery management enhancements, a new Wellness app that improves health tracking, and more. The update is beginning to roll out to all Gen 5 device users, which was also teased on the company’s website.
The sleep tracking feature, tracked by the Wellness app, brings functionality such as sleep history, the ability to monitor restfulness, and set sleep goals. The inclusion of this feature will be a welcome addition and also comes just before Apple adds the feature to its Watch products through watchOS 7 later this year.
The update also brings VO2 max tracking – something Samsung is introducing with the Galaxy Watch3 – to the Gen 5 smartwatches, bringing in improved monitoring for cardiovascular health. Another feature being made available for customers is the ability to set battery profiles to switch between better performance and battery conservation. The firm is reportedly moving some tasks such as heart rate and step tracking off the processor’s main cores, in conjunction with moving some processing into the Wellness app, to improve battery life.
The company is also bringing a new Phone tile that supports the Tiles feature on Wear OS that lets users set an avatar for contacts, quick access for accessing phone call information, and support for tethering calls from both Android and iOS devices. These features greatly improve the usability of the smartwatches with users of both platforms.
The updates should begin rolling out today for all Gen 5 smartwatch users. Fossil's range of devices have gathered high praise from our reviews, and these added health and fitness features only make them better.
Source: VentureBeat
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